Getting the salespeople to sell the new product? Management of change?
Throughout my career I have often found great initiatives that have failed miserably simply because people who should have applied didn’t do it. This applies to product launches, marketing campaigns or sales actions. I think nobody will be surprised when I say for example that one of the biggest marketing challenges is often getting salespeople to begin to sell a new product.
Since we started marketing in many cases the premise (fake) that people will change spontaneously. When in reality the fact is the opposite: why shall we do things differently? If it is going well, why change? Or that famous computer science statement: “Does it work? Don’t touch it.”
I have seen many models for managing change, but the one I liked most so far is Prosci. I recommend visiting the web site, contains a wealth of useful material for free. It is also possible to purchase material or to attend to a course. The virtue of the model is simple yet but rigorous, based on years of maturation and benchmarking.
In summary, the proposed model consists of five steps.
Awareness: our target has to know that change is necessary. First step: communication, the sooner the better.
Desire: the people have to want to change. For this, involvement is vital. Counting the benefits is essential. This is called advertising, of course!
Knowledge: those involved need to know how the process will occur. Here training comes into play, no doubt.
Ability: those responsible must have the necessary skills for the new tasks or new ways of doing that will be implemented. We must educate.
Reinforcement: to ensure that there is no risk to go back, incentives and systems of troubleshooting are key. Keywords: awards, coaching, support.
Simple, common sense, right? Is this applicable to our customers (partners, advocates, buyers, users, etc.)? What about the education of our children?
The practical application of the model obviously requires more knowledge. This post is only intended to reach stage 1.
